Nothing profound today, but I thought I would share the image of Figure 1 of a changing sweetgum leaf against a bed of brown much. I love the star-shaped leaves of the sweet gum and I love the smell of cool damp mulch. Although my sinuses may take exception. But sometimes you just have to go with what is beautiful and touches your photographic fancy!

Yesterday I took notice of the coming of Mabon, the autumnal Equinox and the first leaf of autumn. I love to watch the changes at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Concord, MA, and special in this parade of life are the lotuses. Right now they are in a confused state. Most are changing color and a few still resist and even bloom. Still others have reached an advanced stage of decay. They have lost essential oils and barely float on the surface.

Such is the case with the giant leaf of Figure 1, the “Summer’s Last Lotus.” It is as if it was dissolving into the pond. Not only has it turned colors, but also there are the colors of mold and decay.

Lotuses bear their association with Lakshmi, thus with birth, death, and reincarnation, fertility and life rooted in primordial water. They grow in the muddiest and darkest of waters, rising as if from the very depths of nothingness.

What a summer it has been! I have been haunting my usual happy places: the North Shore, Ithaca, and the celestial skies. Most of my photographic work has been of astronomical objects – this since purchasing a SeeStar 50S, which is essentially a star camera – have had many adventures with this and I must admit that this is where my interests in astronomy and photography have taken me. Such are my latest photographic wanderings. It all lies at the convergence of my interests in optics, in the beautiful, and the sublime.

But I awake to the realization that today is the Autumnal Equinox, the Mabon, the moment when the night is precisely as long as the day. Here in the Northeast it is cold and rainy creating an earthiness to the world – always evoking our seminal myths of the forest. So I want to share Figure 1 – First Sign of Fall – a nod to this moment of most perfect celestial balance.

Still when i took this photographic, the insect marks on the leaf disturbed me. But I realize that no summer is ever perfect!

New England meadows are filled these days with the call of the red-winged black birds (Agelaius phoeniceus). These are either mating calls or territorial calls. The male red-wings have a tough life by many standards. They are polygynous and each male is typically defending the nest of multiple females. To make matters worse, cow birds love to lay their eggs in red-wing nests. So much so that a recent Standford University study found that “up to 50 percent of Red-winged Blackbird nestings carry no genes of the territorial male.”

So it was not that surprising that last night I encountered the very distressed and aggressive male red-wing of Figure 1 jumping around and squawking his head off as if to shout “beat it.” Did he think I was after one of his harem or did he think I wanted to lay and egg in one of his nests? Did he think I was another male red-wing or a cow bird? Without doubt I was too close.

Yesterday was rain-filled all day but the sun popped out in the late afternoon and the golden light and rain-cleared atmosphere were to irresistible. I headed out to the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Concord, MA to see what birds and critters were afoot. I was rewarded. Figure 1 shows a gaggle of Canada goose (Branta canadensis) goslings feeding with their parents just off the causeway in the vegetation. The light was kind of magical as the setting sunshine reflected of their fuzzy yellow heads.

I am using Adobe Photoshop with the Topaz Photo AI widget exclusively now for my bird photographs. The only downside is that exporting back to Photoshop is slow becuase of the upscaling.

The parade of nature at the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge continues and on schedule the New England Tree Frogs (I think) have appeared. I ran into the fellow of Figure 1 on Monday morning, and he was scared enough of me to freeze riveted in place for a close-up with my cell phone.

There is something about frogs, something almost human. I suspect that it is related to their body shape and the seeming grins on their faces. This has, of course, had the unfortunate effect of making them victims of countless high school dissections. Usually they are not portrayed as evil. The biblical plague of Frogs may be a notable exception.

Frogs feature in Aristophanes’ play be the same name, where Dionysus is tormented by a chorus of frogs. Surprisingly, that is the only reference to frogs in the play.

As I contemplated this little froggy and he me, I was reminded of the puzzlement of the Fairy Queen in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe, the fairy Iolanthe is banished by the Fairy Queen, because she committed the sin of marrying a mortal, from fairyland to a place of her choosing, she chooses to live beneath the stream with the frogs. Nobody knows why.

Fairy Queen: “…and the frogs! Ugh! I never shall enjoy any peace of mind until I know why Iolanthe went to live among the frogs.”

So delightful. But soon it is revealed that the reason is that Iolanthe wanted to live near her son, Strephon – the sacrifices mothers make. Strephon is half human half fairy and this leads to the great and marvelous chaos of the play. This centers around Strephon being sent by the Fairy Queen to Parliment where he magically passes legislature making the House of Lords merit-based. Imagine the implication of that to the American Congress in our times!

It was something to think about as I left the little smiling froggy alone, much to his relief, and of course, the words of the Dance of the Peers rang through my head as I resumed my walk down the path.

“Bow, bow, ye lower middle classes!
Bow, bow, ye tradesmen, bow, ye masses.“

There are so many lovely birds in Southwest Florida. Today I return to the shore birds and specifically to the ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres). The wikipedia defines the turnstone as a cosmopolitan bird. Photographing it with the skyscrapers of Fort Myers in the background makes you think cosmopolitan might refer to “near city,” but in fact, it means “widely distributed around the world.”

You are seeing lots of brownish birds along the Gulf Coast shore and some of the rangers and volunteers carry pamphlets showing size, leg size, beak length, and beak curve as a means of identification. I found the ruddy turnstone of Figure 1 amongst some mangrove debris from the recent hurricane at Lovers Key in Fort Myers, FL

My image today, Figure 1, is of a mating pair of blue-winged teals. Again this was captured at the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. I thought that I would deviate from the usual male female, side-by-side, capture and show my pair with the female’s head under the water. These are quintessential dabbling ducks and this beneath the surface movement of head and bill as a means of searching for food is referred to as “dabbling.”

I find that there is something beautiful about ducks and I am always delighted to encounter a new, for me, species. The plumage of the blue-winged teal is particularly spectacular, and this pair, whose image did not really require “sharpening” was made to really “pop” by Topaz PhotoSharpen.

On the subject of pelicans we have the other common pelican species in Florida, the American white pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos). And OK the latin name might lead us to as, why not American Red-nosed Pelican? I photographed the one of Figure 1 also in the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. There is something truly magnificent and magical, even mystical about these birds. Part of it is that they remind us of pterosaurs, of something not quite of our time and place. For the human soul a sojourn by the sea or upon the beach is medicinal and rejuvenating. Finding the pelican, white or brown, there is a symbol an encounter of what is to come.